Christmas spirit courses through brothers' veins

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It was a small, three-paragraph story in the newspaper, one that for me did not answer a basic question: Why would those two boys do that?

They are ages 13 and 10. I can remember that time in my life, an age when I was, sadly or otherwise, totally about me. I was consumed by toys. I could not get enough.

Give one away, let alone as many as 200? I could not fathom it. So I drove over to the address mentioned in the three paragraphs. I wanted answers.

It was an industrial building on Susan Street in Santa Ana, Avco Alloy Valves and Control. Greg and Jayne Parra own it and run it. The two boys are their sons, Daniel, 13, and Ryan, 10, who held a toy drive last week to benefit the children of sailors and Marines of the 1st Marine Division at Camp Pendleton.

“It was awesome,” Greg Parra said when I asked how the drive went. It was all Jayne Parra could do not to cry as she tried to explain how it all came about. “It went really, really well,” she finally said.

I would have asked the boys, but they were unavailable. I do not know if they would have spoken with me if they were. On a piece of paper Daniel left with his mother, he had written, “I don't really want that kind of publicity for me, just for my toy drive.”

It all started eight years ago when the boys were still toddlers, Jayne Parra explained. She decided to throw a Christmas party that year at their Huntington Beach home. The boys could invite a couple of friends. She arranged with Parks and Recreation for Santa to appear to hand out presents to the kids.

It turned out to be a stressful, jealousy-filled experience the Parras never wanted to go through again. Even so, they came up with an idea.

The next year they decided the boys could invite to the party as many of their friends they wanted. To get in, each child would have to bring one wrapped Christmas toy.

The war in Iraq was at its height. Jayne Parra had heard of an organization, Toys for the Troops' Kids, a collection drive for the children of soldiers, sailors and Marines deployed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

They filled the family Suburban that first year with toys, sporting goods, dolls and doll houses, Jayne Parra remembered. There might, too, have been a bike or two.

The boys loved it. They were awed that first year when they arrived at Camp Pendleton to deliver the toys, the way they could see the dozens of children on the base, but not their fathers and mothers who were serving overseas.

“It had morphed into something much more meaningful and poetic than a simple Christmas party, and really showed the boys the true meaning of Christmas,” Jayne Parra said.

Boys being boys, I asked what seemed to me to be an obvious question.

“No,” their mother said, they have never asked to keep a toy. “Oh, they may have eyeballed one or two, but each one always goes into the box.”

Christmas parties followed the next year and for years after that. In 2008, the boys collected well more than 200 toys, which still ranks as the most ever. In 2010, the Parras decided to cancel the party.

“The economy was so bad, I just didn't feel right asking friends for toys when they had just lost their jobs,” Jayne Parra explained.

As the boys have grown older, their desire to collect toys at Christmas has not diminished, their parents say.

“As the wars have continued, I think they, especially Daniel, have come to see that even though the parents volunteered to join the military, the kids certainly didn't,” Greg Parra said.

“The soldiers,” Jayne Parra said, “really ask for nothing in return. To know that the community cares about them, and especially their children, I think sends a powerful message.”

William Durdin, 1st Marine Division family readiness program coordinator, says “there is no greater feeling than to know one is respected and appreciated,” and that the Parras' effort over the years has gone a long way to raise the spirits of the entire division over the holidays.

As for a party next year, the Parras hesitate a bit before answering. More than 100 children and their parents attend now. The boys' schools, a Brownie troop and their own friends now collect toys and raise money to buy more.

Yet Daniel has in recent weeks alluded to perhaps changing the party a bit. A jumpy house, cookie-making and Santa were all very fine when he was younger. Maybe, just maybe, he has asked, could the format change, even just a little?

“I'm not sure exactly what they will want to do,” Jayne Parra finally says. “But next year we will have a toy drive. On the party, we will negotiate,” she said.

As they have gotten older, Greg Parra said, “they've come to understand and know what is important in life.”

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